Although I have enjoyed my time while on Blogger, I have officially become addicted to Tumblr. I will be posting all my thoughts, bible studies, quotes etc, on my Tumblr feed.
Check it out:
www.treyvancamp.tumblr.com
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Humility
"What hinders us from following Christ is thinking we have a right to something" - Jeff Lewis
For the last week the Lord has been constantly reminding me of the quote above. Countless times I live my life expecting so many different things because I have this sense of entitlement. The word of God clearly is not about getting what I deserve, but giving to God what He deserves - EVERYTHING!
I am so convicted as of late that I have been living in such a prideful manner that expects so many blessings.
This scripture has been so encouraging to me:
[2:1] So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, [2] complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. [3] Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. [4] Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. [5] Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [6] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
(Philippians 2:1-11 ESV)
If I claim to follow Christ, I must follow His attitude of humility. Jesus is the firstborn over all creation and is humble enough to wash the disciples feet and die on a cross.
I pray that you begin to examine your life. You may not be prideful in speech, but how many times do you boast in yourself in your mind?
God reminded me of humility when my grandfather suffered a stroke this past Saturday. It was devastating to hear that his right side was paralyzed. Paige writes about the incident much better than I can, but words really cannot express the anguish in my soul when I heard of his stroke.
Praise God that he has made such a speedy recovery and will most likely leave the hospital today!
You will either learn humility or be humiliated.
Submit to God.
The Lord opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
For the last week the Lord has been constantly reminding me of the quote above. Countless times I live my life expecting so many different things because I have this sense of entitlement. The word of God clearly is not about getting what I deserve, but giving to God what He deserves - EVERYTHING!
I am so convicted as of late that I have been living in such a prideful manner that expects so many blessings.
This scripture has been so encouraging to me:
[2:1] So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, [2] complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. [3] Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. [4] Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. [5] Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [6] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
(Philippians 2:1-11 ESV)
If I claim to follow Christ, I must follow His attitude of humility. Jesus is the firstborn over all creation and is humble enough to wash the disciples feet and die on a cross.
I pray that you begin to examine your life. You may not be prideful in speech, but how many times do you boast in yourself in your mind?
God reminded me of humility when my grandfather suffered a stroke this past Saturday. It was devastating to hear that his right side was paralyzed. Paige writes about the incident much better than I can, but words really cannot express the anguish in my soul when I heard of his stroke.
Praise God that he has made such a speedy recovery and will most likely leave the hospital today!
You will either learn humility or be humiliated.
Submit to God.
The Lord opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Monday, January 10, 2011
One Focus
For those of you who know me well, I wholeheartedly believe that the Word should not stop with you but spread with you. In other words, when you learn something in the Word you are to share what you learned to someone else.
Passion 2011 taught me so many things that I could write pages and pages about. In fact, my closest friends have heard about every message I listened to in detail. Knowing that I do not have enough time to type it all out, the Lord has called me to write about a specific thing I learned at Passion.
The message Beth Moore gave was about the Renewing of Your Mind, using Romans 12:2 as her foundational scripture.
"We think real change is impossible, but that is a lie!" Our minds are something that we can control, but we must renew our minds daily in the Word or our minds will think evil thoughts. Our evil thoughts will then produce evil actions. What was so encouraging was that she noted "we are fully capable of living victoriously"
To make a long story short, and what I want you to get out of this, is that there is hope for us. If we take our evil thoughts and replace them with thoughts of the gospel, things will begin to change. It is a daily process that will take awhile. But if we take captive every thought we have and turn it towards Christ, we can defeat our strongholds (addictions).
What is most important for us is that we remove the distractions that our generation faces. We face more distractions than any other generation has had to go through. We must daily focus on ONE thing: Christ!
"If you are going to do what He has called you to do, you must FOCUS ON HIM"
"The greatest minds may not ever impact as much as they could because they didn't renew their mind. Focus always on the ONE THING: CHRIST. Its never been harder to do one thing, but we must"
If you are a follower of Christ, He has called you to fulfill His will in your life. Whatever He has called you to do, is more than you can do. So focus on Christ, cling to Him, and see Him use you in ways that you never could do on your own.
Passion 2011 taught me so many things that I could write pages and pages about. In fact, my closest friends have heard about every message I listened to in detail. Knowing that I do not have enough time to type it all out, the Lord has called me to write about a specific thing I learned at Passion.
"We think real change is impossible, but that is a lie!" Our minds are something that we can control, but we must renew our minds daily in the Word or our minds will think evil thoughts. Our evil thoughts will then produce evil actions. What was so encouraging was that she noted "we are fully capable of living victoriously"
To make a long story short, and what I want you to get out of this, is that there is hope for us. If we take our evil thoughts and replace them with thoughts of the gospel, things will begin to change. It is a daily process that will take awhile. But if we take captive every thought we have and turn it towards Christ, we can defeat our strongholds (addictions).
What is most important for us is that we remove the distractions that our generation faces. We face more distractions than any other generation has had to go through. We must daily focus on ONE thing: Christ!
"If you are going to do what He has called you to do, you must FOCUS ON HIM"
"The greatest minds may not ever impact as much as they could because they didn't renew their mind. Focus always on the ONE THING: CHRIST. Its never been harder to do one thing, but we must"
If you are a follower of Christ, He has called you to fulfill His will in your life. Whatever He has called you to do, is more than you can do. So focus on Christ, cling to Him, and see Him use you in ways that you never could do on your own.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Passion 2011
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| Charlie Hall Leading 22,000 in worship. Praise God! |
What really impacted me was the talk Francis Chan gave on the second night of the conference. He spoke about living your life in a manner worthy of the gospel (Phil 1:27). He went into great detail on what that looks like in each of our lives. He illustrated the point by bringing out a balancing scale, and weighing the word of God with your life... They honestly should be balanced, because it is what the Word is calling us to do. But if we reflect on our lifestyle there are so many things that do not align with the Bible that we do constantly.
So he challenged us: Does your life make sense with the word of God? If I read this scripture about Hell, and you say you believe it, then why aren't you more urgent with your friends? Do you believe the word when it says you are to love your enemies? Then why are you treating others so bad?
This has changed the way I read the Word in a dramatic way. Each time I read a passage, I look at it in the lens of "Am I making sense with what I am reading right now?" It has given me more opportunities to repent then I ever have before, and I am conciously trying to live my life for Him! In every aspect of my life!
I challenge you to do the same thing. Read the word, not just for information, but expecting to change. If you read about having the same attitude of Christ, being humble, then start living like it. Too often we treat the Bible as our tool to condemn the world, when in reality the person that needs it the most is the one who is reading it first-hand.... you! and me!
So I encourage you to read the Word of God in this manner.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Evangelism
So the Lord has been hitting me upside the head the past few weeks like crazy on the subject of not getting caught up in numbers. The Gathering is the area in my life, where I stress most when it comes to people attending. Yes, I should care about people coming so that they can hear the gospel. But at the same time, it does not mean if you are successful or not. The Lord has showed me how its more important to follow God and be biblical than to have a large crowd and having the Gathering become extremely popular.
Jesus was not very popular at times in His ministry. In fact, He dwindled it down to 12 because of His harsh statements He made about what it means to truly follow Him.
I also look at the apostles and great men of God in our history, and I see a lot of failure when it comes to people increasingly coming. Adoniram Judson was a missionary who went to an unreached people group and translated the Bible for the Burmese people. He did not experience a single profession of faith until 6 years into his ministry. He was obviously fruitful in his work for the Lord before that person came to Christ.
So God has been humbling me to realize that success is based off of preaching the Word for what it is, and doing everything for the glory of God. If that means a lot of people come, praise God, if a lot of people don't... Praise God!!!
I leave you with a quote that has changed me a lot this past week.
"To evangelize does not mean to win converts... but simply to announce the good news, irrespective of the results" - John Stott
Jesus was not very popular at times in His ministry. In fact, He dwindled it down to 12 because of His harsh statements He made about what it means to truly follow Him.
I also look at the apostles and great men of God in our history, and I see a lot of failure when it comes to people increasingly coming. Adoniram Judson was a missionary who went to an unreached people group and translated the Bible for the Burmese people. He did not experience a single profession of faith until 6 years into his ministry. He was obviously fruitful in his work for the Lord before that person came to Christ.
So God has been humbling me to realize that success is based off of preaching the Word for what it is, and doing everything for the glory of God. If that means a lot of people come, praise God, if a lot of people don't... Praise God!!!
I leave you with a quote that has changed me a lot this past week.
"To evangelize does not mean to win converts... but simply to announce the good news, irrespective of the results" - John Stott
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Thankful!
If I have learned anything from being away from my home, is that I should be so much more thankful than I really am! I really miss my close friends and family back home, and they have done so much for me!
Specifically Jordan: Jordan has been so amazing through this whole thing. I keep hearing how tough it is to have a long distance relationship, but Jordan and I are doing so great! Its been such a blessing to get a word of encouragement from her daily, and it is so noticeable how much more she has gotten into the Word. This being away thing has been the best thing for us. Its taught me personally, how to be a lot more thankful than I ever was. I never recognized how much of a servant's heart she had, until I left. She is willing to do so much for the body of believers, and its such an encouragement to me. Although I have been a believer longer than her, she continues to teach me so much every day. This also has created both of us to seek God even more through this trial. Trials are always used by God for our good, and I can definitely see that evident in our relationship. We have both grown individually with God through this, as well as a relationship. Our prayer's every night has really been a huge factor in keeping me positive in this entire experience.
She is so awesome!!! I am very very lucky :)
Specifically Jordan: Jordan has been so amazing through this whole thing. I keep hearing how tough it is to have a long distance relationship, but Jordan and I are doing so great! Its been such a blessing to get a word of encouragement from her daily, and it is so noticeable how much more she has gotten into the Word. This being away thing has been the best thing for us. Its taught me personally, how to be a lot more thankful than I ever was. I never recognized how much of a servant's heart she had, until I left. She is willing to do so much for the body of believers, and its such an encouragement to me. Although I have been a believer longer than her, she continues to teach me so much every day. This also has created both of us to seek God even more through this trial. Trials are always used by God for our good, and I can definitely see that evident in our relationship. We have both grown individually with God through this, as well as a relationship. Our prayer's every night has really been a huge factor in keeping me positive in this entire experience.
She is so awesome!!! I am very very lucky :)
Encouraged
Okay, so the past week or so I have sat down to type my blog, and I do not even know where to begin. Instead of trying to figure out how to structure it all, I just decide to do it another day.
Well, I finally want to take this time to write down all of my thoughts. If I pontificated on every thing that God has done in my life since I have been to CBU, this would be pages long... We all know I am not that captivating at writing, so I am just gonna type it out in short form so you get the gist of it.
- God has taught me about caring for others a whole lot more. Queen Creek does not have community the way CBU does. Of course a lot of it has to do with a lot more believers being here, and it automatically evokes encouragement. But what I have learned a lot here, is that we should care for each and every person. Don't get me wrong, I believe that I cared for each person while in Queen Creek; but my mentors here have taught me a lot on how to constructively care for someone.
Its as simple as a one on one lunch. I have been so blessed by doing this, just asking them how their life is, what God has been doing for them. Its insane to hear their responses, and its even more insane that it encourages both parties SO MUCH!
Its also as simple as a phone call, keeping them accountable with their walk with God in an encouraging way!!
- I was blessed today by sitting in a "Intro to Pastoral Ministry" class (a class I will take my sophomore year). It was presentation day, and I was blown away by my fellow students and how they dissected God's word. One group looked at Paul in the book of Acts. They revealed to the class how effective he was as a pastor, and what we should learn from him. I was encouraged to see how Paul preached publicly, but also from home to home! He did life with everyone!
Paul also had the spirit of humility when it came to the pastor's position.
In other words, we must continually remind ourselves that while we hold ourselves to be above reproach, we must never forget that we are not above anyone.
As pastors we should live a life that is above reproach, but with a humble attitude knowing that we are sinners just as much as anyone in the crowd.
The second group worked through 1 Timothy.
Key points I gained from the presentation:
1. Pastors should: - preach the Word of God AGGRESSIVELY
- Raise up other leaders (at least 2 at a time)
- Serve ALL people
- Expositional teaching
- Be servant of men, and a slave to God
- Hold the church accountable. .
- Defend the doctrine!
It was so encouraging to hear fellow peers who will be pastors one day, have this so right.
God has been doing amazing things in my life.
I pray that He is impacting yours.
I leave you with a passage to MEDITATE over.
Habakkuk 3:17-19
17Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
Well, I finally want to take this time to write down all of my thoughts. If I pontificated on every thing that God has done in my life since I have been to CBU, this would be pages long... We all know I am not that captivating at writing, so I am just gonna type it out in short form so you get the gist of it.
- God has taught me about caring for others a whole lot more. Queen Creek does not have community the way CBU does. Of course a lot of it has to do with a lot more believers being here, and it automatically evokes encouragement. But what I have learned a lot here, is that we should care for each and every person. Don't get me wrong, I believe that I cared for each person while in Queen Creek; but my mentors here have taught me a lot on how to constructively care for someone.
Its as simple as a one on one lunch. I have been so blessed by doing this, just asking them how their life is, what God has been doing for them. Its insane to hear their responses, and its even more insane that it encourages both parties SO MUCH!
Its also as simple as a phone call, keeping them accountable with their walk with God in an encouraging way!!
- I was blessed today by sitting in a "Intro to Pastoral Ministry" class (a class I will take my sophomore year). It was presentation day, and I was blown away by my fellow students and how they dissected God's word. One group looked at Paul in the book of Acts. They revealed to the class how effective he was as a pastor, and what we should learn from him. I was encouraged to see how Paul preached publicly, but also from home to home! He did life with everyone!
Paul also had the spirit of humility when it came to the pastor's position.
In other words, we must continually remind ourselves that while we hold ourselves to be above reproach, we must never forget that we are not above anyone.
As pastors we should live a life that is above reproach, but with a humble attitude knowing that we are sinners just as much as anyone in the crowd.
The second group worked through 1 Timothy.
Key points I gained from the presentation:
1. Pastors should: - preach the Word of God AGGRESSIVELY
- Raise up other leaders (at least 2 at a time)
- Serve ALL people
- Expositional teaching
- Be servant of men, and a slave to God
- Hold the church accountable. .
- Defend the doctrine!
It was so encouraging to hear fellow peers who will be pastors one day, have this so right.
God has been doing amazing things in my life.
I pray that He is impacting yours.
I leave you with a passage to MEDITATE over.
Habakkuk 3:17-19
17Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
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